The image display surface of an image display device, such as a liquid crystal display, a CRT display, a projection display, a plasma display, or an electroluminescent display, needs to be provided with scratch resistance such that no scratches will be made during handling. In general, scratch resistance is improved by forming a hard-coat layer on the image display surface. Because acrylate compounds can be cured in a short time by using photoradical generating agents, photocurable compositions including polyfunctional acrylates as main components are used as hard-coat materials. Of various polyfunctional acrylates, photocurable compositions particularly including dipentaerythritol hexaacrylate as a main component (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2) can provide a hard-coat layer with a high surface hardness and excellent scratch resistance; however, adhesiveness to glass, etc., is insufficient. A photocurable composition that includes, as a main component, a hydroxyl-group-containing acrylate such as pentaerythritol triacrylate (see, for example, Patent Document 3) is known as a composition with improved adhesiveness to glass. This composition, however, has a drawback in that the surface hardness is insufficient and that it is prone to scratches. It is also known that a photocurable composition including an epoxycyclohexyl-group-containing siloxane compound and a radical-curable acrylic resin (see, for example, Patent Document 4) can provide a hard-coat layer having excellent scratch resistance; however, adhesiveness to glass is insufficient.
Meanwhile, in order to form a hard-coat layer only on the image display surface, it is preferable to use a photoresist. Further, in consideration of effects on health and the environment, it is preferable to use an alkali-developable photoresist. Alkali-developable photoresists that can be used for hard-coat layers are known in the art (see, for example, Patent Document 5), but such known photoresists have insufficient scratch resistance.